Material treating apparatus



Feb. 6, 1940. c. H. BELL 2,189,415 MATERIAL TREATING APPARA'IDUSOriginal Filed Oct. 2, 1937 Patented Feb. 6, 1940 UNITED srA-resMATERIAL TREATING APPARATUS Charles H. Bell, Westfield, N. J., assignorto Nassau smelting and Refining Company, Incorporated, New. York, N. Y.,a corporation of New York Original application October 2, 1937, SerialNo. I 166,956. Divided and this application May 13,

1939, Serial N0. 273,389

4 Claims. (01. 207-3) This invention relates to material treatingapparatus and more particularly to apparatus for converting materialinto strand for This is a division of my copending application, SerialNo. 166,956, filed October 2, 1937.

A common and well known method of converting a large variety ofmaterials-into strands is that known as .extrusion; 'i.' e. subjectingthe material in a rigid container having one or more appropriatelyshaped apertures, to pressure whereby the material is squeezed out or.extruded throughthe aperture or apertures in the form of strands, whosesize and cross-sectional form will be determined by the size and shapeof the apertures. The apparatus or extrusion press ordinarily used forthis purpose comprises a hydraulic press, with the container orextrusion cylinder mounted on one of the principal press members and aram adapted to fit closely to into the cylinder mounted on the otherpress member to be driven thereby into the cyiinder. Material placed inthe cylinder will thus be ex truded by the coaction of the ram andcylinder through one or more appropriate apertures 215 formed in thecylinder or the ram. Materials to be thus treated may be of a widevariety of kinds, e. g. the softer metals, lead, lead-antimony alloys,

other alloys of lead, solders, alloys of tin, plastic materials such asCelluloid, the artificial resins 30 and the like, viscous solutionsorpastes with volatile solvents, in short practically any substance orcompound which will flow under the conditions of temperature andpressure practicable within,

the cylinder. Since the material to be extruded is extruded by plasticflow under pressure it is evident that I the material in the cylinder'ofsuch an apparatus is, in effect, a liquid during the extrusion althoughit may be a very stiff and viscous one. Hence the material is thensubject to the laws of hydrostatic pressure and so exerts its pressurein all directions against its confining walls. In particular, is thispressure exerted against the entire wall in which the extrusionapertures are formed,

and material in contact with, or near to this wall at points remote fromthe apertures must move more or less parallel to the wall to reach theapertures and escape. Since the materials are usually stifily viscous innature,-this flow entails pressures considerably in excess of thatactually required for the extrusion itself.

An object of the present invention is to produce an apparatus forextruding strand material in which the ratio of cross-section ofextrusion u aperture to solid area in the extrusion wall of thecontainer is made as high as practically may be, to the end that theextrusion pressure and thereby the strain on the apparatus maybematerially diminished. I

With the above and other objects in view, one embodiment of theinvention contemplates an extrusion apparatus having a pair ofcomplementary, coacting, annular, extrusion members which define anannular extrusion wall provided with a plurality of extrusion apertures.Ill

Other objects and features of-the invention will appear from thefollowing detailed'description of embodiments thereof taken inconnection with the accompanying drawing in which the same referencenumeralsare applied to identical parts in the several figures and inwhich I Fig. 1 is a broken view in elevation and partly in section of anapparatus for-converting material into strand form, embodying theinvention, and r Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

I The embodiment of the invention disclosed shows a hydraulic extrusionpress of generally conventional form and structure modified as describedbelow to embody the invention. The 25 press comprises a base, generallyindicated at 20, to which-are secured the lower ends of a pair ofvertical pillar guides 2!, 22, and a yoke 23 immovably secured acrossthe tops of the pillars.

The basestructure includes a hydraulic cylinder 30 and arranged withinthe cylinder as to define therewith a circularly annular extrusionchamber A depending cylindrical extrusion ram 31 is rigidly mounted onthe under side of the yoke it to be coaxial with the chamber til, and isof exterior diameter tofit snugly into the outer wall of the chamber.The ram 3! has a vertical coaxial bore 32 dimensioned to fit snugly overthe core 29, so that when the cylinder 2? is raised by the action of thehydraulic cylinder 25 and piston 26, the ram 3i fits tightly enough into5 the chamber 30 to prevent the passage of any substantial quantity ofmaterial contained in the chamber 30 between the ram 3| and the cylinder27, or between the ram 3| and the core 29. Furthermore, a suitablepassageway 33 is formed in the hollow ram 3| to allow air to escapetherefrom.

The core 29 rests at its lower end upon the base 28, which in turn issupported on a block 4! resting on pillars 42 supported on the piston26. The base 28 is preferably formed as a plate extending across andclosing the bottom of the cylinder 21. The block 4! is formed with apreferably circular aperture 34 coaxial with the cylinder 2'! and core29. A pillar 43, resting on the piston 26, extends upwardly coaxiallyinto the aperture 34 and supports the center of the plate 28 directlyunder the core 29. Preferably the pillar 43 and the core 29 are ofsubstantially like diameter. Thus the plate 28 is completely covered onits upper face by the cylinder 21 and the core 29 except for the annularpart exposed at the bottom of the chamber 30. Likewise the plate 28 issupported over its entire under surface by the block 4| and pillar 43except for an annular part corresponding in size, shape and position tothe exposed portion of its upper sur face.

The plate 28 is further formed or provided with a plurality of extrusiondie apertures 36 located in the annular portion of the plate between thebottom ends of the cylinder 21 and core 29.

In describing the operation, let it be assumed that the apparatus is tobe used to convert solder, such as the familiar mixture or alloy ofequal parts of lead and tin, into strand or wire form. With the parts inthe position shown in Fig. l, the chamber 30 may be filled with moltensolder substantially to the top. The press is then set in motion tobring the cylinder 21 up to meet and coact with the ram 3|. As thecylinder is forced up along the ram, the solder in the cylinder 2'! isput under heavy pressure and escapes from the chamber 30 by passing downthrough the die apertures 36 in the form of strands. The temperature ofthe material in the chamber 38 being within the range found to besatisfactory for the material in question, in the case of the soldermentioned about 400 F. more or less, the material emerges from the diesas solid strands 40 and may be led away by any convenient means (notshown) between the pillars 42 to be coiled for storage or othertreatment.

While the chamber 30 is here hown as circularly annular incross-section, it obviously may have any other annular form desired. Theembodiment of the invention herein disclosed is illustrative only andmay be modified and departed from in many ways without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention as pointed out in and limitedsolely by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an extrusion press to simultaneously extrude a plurality ofstrands, an extrusion cylinder, a ram to enter thereinto, a die membermounted in the end of the cylinder opposite to the ram and provided withan annular plurality of extrusion apertures opening from the chamber ofthe cylinder near the periphery thereof, and a supporting member abuttedagainst the outer side of the die member and substantially centrally ofthe annular plurality of extrusion apertures.

2. In an extrusion press to simultaneously extrude a plurality ofstrands, an extrusion cylinder, a coaxial core therein to make thechamber annular in cross-section, a hollow ram to enter the annularchamber and receive the core, a die member mounted in the end of thecylinder opposite to the ram and provided with an annular plurality ofextrusion apertures opening from the chamber of the cylinder near theperiphery thereof and outside of the coaxial core, and a supportingmember abutted against the outer side of the die member andsubstantially centrally of the annular plurality of extrusion aperturesand coaxially to the core in the chamber.

3. In an extrusion press to simultaneously extrude a plurality ofstrands, an extrusion cylinder having a chamber of annularcross-section, and a ram of annular cross-section to enter one end ofthe chamber, in combination with a closure member extending across theother end of the cylinder to close the annular chamber thereof, andmeans to support the closure member against the end of the cylinderexcept over an 2 annular portion thereof corresponding to the annularend of the chamber, the closure member being formed with an annularplurality of extrusion apertures opening from the chamber of thecylinder.

4. In an extrusion press to simultaneously extrude a plurality ofstrands, an extrusion cylinder having a chamber of annularcross-section, and a ram of annular cross-section to enter one end ofthe chamber, in combination with a closure member extending across theother end of the cylinder to close the annular chamber thereof, and acentral supporting member and a co axial annular supporting member tosupport the closure member against the end of the cylinder except overan annular portion thereof corresponding to the annular end of thechamber, the closure member being formed with an annular plurality ofextrusion apertures opening from the chamber of the cylinder.

CHARLES H. BELL.

